External Laryngeal Nerve - Clinical Significance

Clinical Significance

The external branch is susceptible to damage during thyroidectomy or cricothyrotomy, as it lies immediately deep to the superior thyroid artery. The ability to produce pitched sounds is then impaired along with easy voice fatigability, (usually mono-toned voice).

Not to be confused with damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve.

Read more about this topic:  External Laryngeal Nerve

Famous quotes containing the word significance:

    The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.
    Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)